CEBU CITY: The Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Central Visayas has trained over 100 members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) as a prelude to their new assignment of apprehending motor riders violating traffic laws at the Trans-Central Highway, an official said Friday.
Glen Galario, regional director of LTO-7, said the police officers assigned at the Cebu provincial police have been deputized to apprehend traffic violators at the said highway amid the increasing number of accidents in the area.
The partnership between LTO and the PNP was made after Balamban Mayor Ace Stefan Binghay communicated to his office their move to set up an enforcement unit on the Balamban side of the highway to minimize traffic-related incidents, Galario said.
Trans-Central Highway is an upland arterial road connecting Cebu City and the western shipbuilding town of Balamban.
Although the LTO-7 did not reveal the total number of accidents in the area, Galario said the increase is alarming.
‘We are very grateful to Mayor
Binghay for hosting our deputation seminar together with over a hundred PNP personnel in the province,’ Galario said in a statement.
The seminar, he said, is one of the requirements for deputation.
A total of 114 police personnel, 10 personnel from the Balamban Traffic Management Office, and two from the Provincial Mobile Force Company attended the training and subsequent deputation on May 14.
Meanwhile, LTO-7 issued a deputation to 14 patrol officers for the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX).
Lawyer Vicente Gador Jr., LTO-7 operations division chief, said the 14 patrol officers were trained at the agency’s central office and were officially issued Temporary Operator’s Permits (TOPs).
Currently, LTO-7 has a total of 224 deputized personnel who are authorized to apprehend violators of the traffic laws in Central Visayas.
Source: Philippines News Agency
